The following article about Ken and Diane’s 9 week log home originally appeared, some years ago, in our Association’s Log Home Builder’s Journal:

Ken, His wife Diane and son Kenny in front of their new “9-week” owner built log home.

Ken is an investment advisor. He is trained to advise people in the purchase of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, et cetera. Ken and his family just finished building a new log home. He was one of the many recent builders who attended the last local Association meeting. We asked Ken to tell us briefly how long it took him to build the home, and how much it cost.

“Well,” said Ken, “we bought the land on July 12th. On July 13th we cut all the trees for our home except the rafter poles. We only needed to cut 15 trees because we were able to get three logs from each tree; each one of the logs was 29 feet long. The average log diameter was about 17 inches. Except for the rafters, 45 logs were enough to build the entire house. After cutting the trees we spent the next week preparing the [building] site, then we built the foundation which took a week and a half. While we worked on the foundation we also had time to peel the logs, so when the foundation was finished we were ready to put up the walls.”

It took 9 weeks for a husband and wife team to build this mortgage free log home

“In two days the log walls were completely finished and the ridge pole was up.”

“It took one week to cut and skid rafter poles and another two days to nail them in place. Then it took two more days to cover the roof with 2″ x 6″ tongue-and-groove boards.”

“Basically, we completed the shell of our home in nine weeks. That included nine Saturdays, four Sundays, and one or two hours of work each evening.”

“The house is 27×27 feet square, with two stories, totalling 1,458 sq. ft. We use the butt method of construction which is one of the methods we learned from Skip. We even did our own electrical and plumbing work, and our own septic tank and drain field system. We found the building code people very easy to get along with.”

“We’re living in our new home now, and we’re very happy with it. We did everything the way Skip taught us and it all worked out perfectly; we even sent three friends to Skip’s school.”

“The house is almost finished and we are just about ready for our final inspection. The house cost us a total of $10,000. However, $2,500 of that money was spent on getting power lines put in. Technically, we have only spent about $7,500 on the house itself.”

“Not a bad investment.”

It is possible to spend very little money in order to build a log home. It is also possible to spend a great deal of money in order to build a log home. How much gets spent is often just a function of the builder’s personality.

Our members who spend the least amount of money are those who: have modest desires, do as much work as possible themselves, are genuinely frugal, et cetera. They are the ones that just want a good solid house, a roof over their head, and no 30 year mortgage.

They usually skip things like river rock fireplaces, granite table tops, heated driveways, et cetera. In other words, they focus on what makes the most long term financial sense for them… not what their neighbor (Mr. & Mrs. Jones) might think. It’s a matter of priorities, and remember you can always add more expensive accessories and accoutrements later if it’s something you really want.

During the HVAC section of the LHBA class you learn how to build THIS, for thousands less than real river rock fireplace!

If you view our student log home gallery you’ll see that many LHBA students are building absolutely beautiful log homes, and are managing to do it without spending a huge amount of money.

It’s worth noting that it’s usually more expensive to build in a place like Southern California, or Western Washington, because you need more permits than if you build in someplace like Maine or Texas. Permits also tend to cost a bit more in a place like California, socialism tends to have that effect. There’s just no way around the fact that it’s more expensive to build in some areas, and less expensive to build in other areas.

An LHBA student built this home in super expensive southern California and he made 100% profit when he sold it!

The good news is that the Association’s class explains a lot of tips and tricks that can be used to drastically reduce construction costs no matter where you build.

We have taught over 40,000 people how to build log homes since 1965 and this is the kind of feedback we always get from our students.

“The cost of the class will pay for itself MANY times over, along the entire process of your build! Even if you do NOT build LHBA/Butt-n-Pass, you will gain knowledge (wisdom), that will help you all along the way.” — LHBA student AKchas (forum name)

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“The cost of the class is quickly recovered in savings on the job. Once you start thinking non-traditionally about acquiring materials, costs can really drop.

Of course, none of us can guaranty you can get your logs cheaper. That would really fall upon you. LHBA can show you the door, but you must walk through it yourself. The decision is yours.

I make no money or incentive to convince you to do so, but believe it would be in your best interest to attend the class.” — LHBA student Rreidnauer (forum name)

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“Best class I’ve ever taken!

We hope to start building our second log home in the next year or two. Built #1, lived in it for 4 great years, & recently sold it.

Knowing what I know now about everything (class, forum, LHBA in general), the class is a steal.” — LHBA student Shark (forum name)

How much settling space does a log home need above windows and doors? Some log homes need a lot, and some need none.

Okay, we admit that there is such a thing as log home settling. The catch is that it only occurs in log homes that were built the wrong way, in our opinion. If you build a log home using the butt-and-pass method, and you build it correctly, there is no settling to be concerned with.

The Truth about settling

The problem is that kit log cabin builders need some reason to exist. If everyone knew about the butt-and-pass method of log home construction, there would be no more log home kit dealers. Why? Because you can’t make a “kit” out of a butt-and-pass log home. It simply is not possible — a butt-and-pass log home is so strong (when built correctly) that you can’t build it in a factory then take it apart and ship it somewhere else to reassemble it. It can’t be done.

So the kit builders choose the next best thing: building a type of log home that does come apart in their factory, and then they ship it to John and Martha’s property and reassemble it.

Typical settling space above a window in a log wall. The Butt and Pass method of log home construction does not require any settling space.

What’s so bad about that? Settling occurs in any type of log structure that has the ability to come apart, such as Scandinavian Chinkless, Canadian Chinkless and Saddle-notch log homes.

So after the kit builder reassembles John and Martha’s new kit home, everything is wonderful. And about a year later when the logs have finished drying, the settling is noticeable. Maybe the stairs are out of alignment. Maybe there is a gap between the log wall and the roof. Maybe a window has shattered from the weight of the logs above it.

These are some of the reasons that “kit” log home builders cut keyways and “settling space” above each window and door. So when the logs shrink and settle, they won’t crush the window or door. We’ve even seen log home kits assembled with a giant screw jack in the basement that allows the homeowner to “lower the roof” over time as the house settles.

A keyway used in log home construction when installing windows and doors. It helps prevent damage due to settling. A Butt and Pass log home does not require keyways, because it does not settle.

The good news is that you can avoid this nightmare and the extra expenses associated with it. All you have to do is build a log home that doesn’t come apart and doesn’t settle like a bag of potato chips that someone has sat on. In other words, consider building a butt-and-pass log home, and consider building it correctly.

Air-drying logs, the traditional way

Seasoning your logs is important when you are building a kit home, because of the settling issue. The more moisture that is in your logs when you build the house, the more settling will occur when the moisture finally gets out.

House logs on a seasoning rack. These logs will season easily up to 5 years if building a notched log home

However, seasoning logs the right way costs a lot of money, especially for a large kit home manufacturer. To properly season logs you can’t have them exposed to direct sunlight. You’ll need to rotate them on a regular basis — which means they can’t be in a pile instead they should be spread out evenly on seasoning racks. The seasoning process takes a minimum of 1 year and up to 5 or more. The process is over when your logs moisture content (throughout) matches your ambient moisture level.

Kit manufacturers really can’t properly season logs using tried and true traditional methods. They would practically have to build an airplane hangar to store their timber (We don’t know about you, but we’ve never driven past a kit manufacturer on the highway and saw an airplane hangar filled with logs). They’d also have to wait many years between cutting and using their logs, which ties up a lot of resources.

Kiln drying: cheating nature with mixed results

Despite using a kiln dried timber product instead of logs, kit homes will still experience settling due to the wood losing additional moisture

The various kit manufacturers have to sort of cheat by coming up with faster methods of seasoning the their milled logs. Most methods involve drying the logs in a giant kiln or blowing them with hot air in some fashion to accelerate the process. The goal is to get the moisture content of the milled product to a set amount (i.e. 18%)

This sounds like an exciting, ‘scientific’ solution to the ‘problem.’ In reality most consumers don’t fully understand what the ‘problem’ is that’s being solved, so they have no idea of kiln drying is the best solution. The truth is, it yields some mixed results.

Problem can develop when you artificially accelerate the process of drying logs. They tend to lose moisture on the outer layers of the log but retain it on the inside of the log. If you are using real logs, which might be 12-14″ in diameter, kilns often leave the logs partially ‘dried’ (the outer 1/3). Build with those and you can get gaps developing between logs and excessive settling as the heart wood continues to lose moisture.

Here’s the million-dollar question: if kiln drying logs is so great, why do they still put keyways and “settling space” over the windows? The answer is because the logs still shrink and settle. Even if you properly air dry the logs until they properly seasoned you will still need to expect some settling when building a notched log home or milling a kit (partly because the home will be heated and this will reduce the moisture content of the logs further).

A log home that won’t settle. No keyways or screwjacks!

This tight-pinned butt and pass log home does not need settling spaces, screw jacks, or slip joints. That makes it a lot easier to build

Now for the good news: with a properly-constructed butt-and-pass home, you don’t need to season the logs. You don’t need to bake them in an oven or kiln. You don’t need to stack them on a seasoning rack for even a day.

Because a correctly built butt-and-pass log home doesn’t settle the way kit-style homes do, you don’t need to worry about the shrinkage of the logs or their moisture content. You don’t need to jump through all sorts of hoops (such as keyways, settling space, screw jacks, etc) to build a beautiful, exceptionally strong, exceptionally inexpensive log home.

Kit log homes and trailer homes have a lot in common, when you really stop and think about it. But how? Think of it this way:

Any homes that are delivered on the back of a truck are mobile homes, even if they charge a lot of money for them and call them kit log homes.

For years and years, folks in the business of making “real” log homes (as opposed to the kit kind) have always sneered at “kit homes”. They don’t tell you this in the fancy log home kit magazines because — guess what? The log home kit magazines are bought and paid for by advertising from the kit manufacturers. Most folks in the log home industry refer to kit log homes as “mobile homes”.

Here are a few reasons why:

They aren’t built with real logs. They are built with machine cut lumber that is stacked flat-on-flat. Usually the manufacturer makes a big deal out of how the shape of their “log profile” is superior to everyone else’s.But really they’re just trying to distract you from the fact that their lumber is just slightly larger than a 2″ x 4″ board that you could buy at your local lumber yard.

When you stack lumber flat-on-flat, what happens when it gets wet? It sucks moisture into the gaps by capillary action. Eventually your lumber will rot. This is a massive design problem with “shaped logs” and it cannot be corrected, even with infinite coatings of whatever chemical they recommend.

Delivering kit log homes on the back of a truck from across the country is just about the dumbest thing they could do. Why would you waste all that fuel shipping logs across the country when you could have whole, natural, real logs from right nearby for free or for a fraction of the cost?

Kit log homes DEPRECIATE just like mobile homes. Kit log homes require more maintenance than a proper “real” log cabin. If you accidentally let it slip for a little while, rot will set in and your house will go DOWN in value instead of up.

So how do you avoid this trouble? Instead of shopping for kit log homes, you should consider building a butt and pass log home. Butt and pass style log homes use full, round, whole logs that you can aquire locally. There is NO fancy notchwork required and there is NO settling to worry about.

Here’s a typical one story log home. Most log home have severe height restrictions based on engineering, so they are a maximum height of about 12′-14′. A Butt and Pass home on the other hand, can easily handle a wall height of 20′.

If you have spent time looking at log homes, you probably noticed that the vast majority of them are short. They are either a one story rambler style home or one story with a loft tucked up into the roof — with dormers to add head room. Luckily there’s a way to build a real, full sized log home… a log home with a real second floor, or even a third floor.

The reason most log homes are only 1 story is because of settling problems. The vast majority of log homes out there are either kits, or notched log homes. Those will all experience settling, and require a great deal of complicated and expensive finishing work to compensate for that settling.

Extra work like adding screw jacks, slip joints for plumbing, keyways, settling space above windows/doors, slip joints at the top of sheet rocked interior walls, maybe even spring loaded nuts, et cetera. All of those things can help deal with settling, but they really have a ‘maximum capacity.’ That means they can only deal with ‘so much’ settling — as much that typically happens with a 10-12′ tall log wall. Much higher than that and the problems can really start to develop, so while there are some true 2 story kits out there… most are 1 story.

As the saying goes, “It’s always cheaper to build up versus building out.” That means it will be more expensive to build a large kit or notched log home, to get the same square footage as a taller 2 or 3 story log home, because you need to pay for more foundation, and more roofing material.

It’s always less expensive to build up versus out, and it’s a lot easier to build up using the Skip style Butt and Pass method of construction than any other method.This home, with its 20′ tall log walls, is just fine even in the Pacific Northwest — with it Pacific Rim high seismic zone.

If you want a full sized log home, instead of a short log home, there is an alternate construction method: the Skip style Butt and Pass log home method. With the butt and pass method, there is no settling. That’s right, zero settling. So you can build dang near as tall as you want.

There’s no need to use screw jacks, cut settling space, cut keyways, use slip joints, etc. You save a lot of time, because the project is less complex. You save a lot of money, because you don’t need custom equipment to finish your log home. You also get to skip the dormers, because your walls are tall enough to not need them for head room. That’s awesome, because dormers can be very complicated to build.

And since there’s no settling, you are not limited to 10-12′ tall log walls. It is very common for our students to build 2 or 3 story log homes with 20′ or taller log walls. When you see a full sized log home next to a short log home, it is an extremely impressive sight.

If you’ve been in the market for a log cabin, then you have surely realized that they are typically very expensive. On a cost per square foot basis they are generally much more expensive than your standard stick frame home — but that’s only true if you take the traditional route to log cabin ownership.

A stick frame home can cost around $125 per square foot to build, and a log cabin can cost over $200 per square foot to build. That means you can easily spend about $250,000 to build a 2000 square foot stick frame home, or $400,000 to build a log cabin. Even if you can get those numbers down by 20%, that’s still a heck of a lot of money.

Financially speaking, wouldn’t it be awesome if you could build your own log cabin for as little as $10 or $15 per square foot? Can you actually build a 2000 square foot log cabin for around $20,000?

That is indeed possible if you take an alternate path to log cabin ownership, which involves building a Skip style Butt and Pass log cabin yourself from scratch. You can end up with a very high end log cabin, with great resale value, for a shockingly small amount of money. Here are some real life examples of extremely nice, low cost, log cabins built buy our students.

Please bear in mind that the amounts quoted are total construction costs — to the move in stage. That means the above cabins were ‘turn key’ done when the costs were estimated. — they were NOT at the ‘dried in’ stage, which is the price that most fake log cabin kit manufacturer’s quote for their ‘log packages.’

It does seem surreal, that we have members who are building their entire log cabins for such small amounts. If you were to just hire someone to install tile in your kitchen it could easily cost more than $15 per square foot, for just the tile. But our members manage to build their entire homes for less than that. Here’s some of the steps they take to accomplish that amazing feat:

They used virtually all of the cost cutting tips that we explain at our log cabin building class.

As an owner builder of your own log cabin you have total control over the construction costs. It will be your character, and sense of frugality, that dictates how much you spend.

It is like applying the philosophy of Dave Ramsey to log cabin building. You take the time to gain the right knowledge, to prepare, and plan for your project. With a clear goal in mind you make the conscious choice to pay cash, take on no debt, and use no credit cards. It is truly an alternative path to owning a low cost, high quality log cabin that many others have successfully taken.

If you are interested in owing or building a log cabin, then you should read the following article:

Featured Student Feedback

"Building this house has been the time of our life!! We would really like to thank LHBA for all that they did to help us achieve this amazing feat...

We are now mortgage free!!! Wow what a feeling. I never imagined that it could be done the way we did it, Mortgage free that is... 2 years ago when we sat in that classroom I never even thought that 2 years later I would be typing this in my beautiful mortgage free home...

Thank you LHBA!!!"

Steve & Gretchen Bradbury & Family Read more about the Bradbury family project, and about their family blog here

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